Learning French

Speaking another language other than your mother tongue is a nourishment to the soul. It enhances your personality. And it enables you to have an advantage over those who do not speak the language. That is if you live in a country where not speak this  language.

There is a saying, “when in Rome do as they Romans do”. So certainly, it would be just proper and perhaps advantageous to speak the language of the land. There are a few global languages in the world, but for this article we limit discussion to French.

French is the language of francophone cultures and countries. The language originated from France, but it is now either the native or official language of the francophone lands.

French is the official language of the following European countries: France, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxemburg and Monaco.

And in a unique bilingual country such as Canada. Canada provinces Quebec and New Brunswick are officially bilingual. However, Quebec has adopted French language as the dominant language of the land. Quebec bill 96 mandates the full implementation of French as the official language on almost anything in the province.

For those who are immigrating to Canada by the province of Quebec are now required to pass a certain level of French language skill. Fortunately for me, I received my “Statute au Canada de résident permanent” by marriage; about 2 years after I first arrived and took residence in Montreal, Canada.

I’m not all too lucky though as 50% of the jobs and the easier ones all require the applicant to be bilingual. I took Level 1 & 2 French in 2023, but I was “pasang-awa” (passed by pity) and was advised to repeat. So, I repeated and almost failed again. (That means passed ;D)

Learning a language involves 3 aspects: 1 – reading, 2 – writing, 3 – speaking. Speaking is 2-in-1. You have to listen just like reading – to understand. Then speak just like writing – request and/or respond. Boy! It was NOT easy for me to be listening, especially requesting or responding. That was my handicap.

I’m a quick learner for reading and writing in French, but I kept on spending the entire level 2 just trying to be spontaneous. Sad to say, I was always struggling one way or another. Simple greeting and small-talk are achieved through memorization by rote, I was good with this.

“Learning by immersion” is said to be one of the most effective ways to learn a new language like French. However, that would mean I have to move to a francophone country.

Well, isn’t Quebec a francophone region? Yes, but there is a little problem, they are bilingual also.

One day I went to a doctor’s clinic in Montreal. Before I opened my mouth to speak in English, the receptionist said in English that she speaks in French only. So now I proudly demonstrated my level 2 skills in French. I said … “vous avez un temp o l’horaire pour Samedi”. I stammered when I said Samedi (trying to pronounce it correctly). And then, the reception spoke in English all along – and that is what I call the 3 second bilingual limit. If you cannot complete that sentence, “vous avez un temp o l’horaire pour Samedi”, clearly in 3 seconds, then expect the Quebecois to respond in English. At this situation, it will take years to be up to speed speaking French normally.

As I will start Level 3 French in Quebec this September 2024, I will come prepared. I have subscribed in an immersion based program through Lingopie.

It is like using Netflix dubbed in French, however, for a reason that I will never know, Netflix removed the French dubbed features. I can only suspect that they found out that I was bing-watching in French so they removed it. I removed Neflix because that apparently was the only useful thing they offered me.

My first 3 days use of Lingopie was very useful. I could remember new words nice and slow especially when spoken in native French intonation. I often imitate their speaking. The story dialogue and vocabularies are presented clearly in lookup screen. And it helps my memory – reinforced by real-time reading and listening. By end of the year, I’ll follow-up with this use, reviewing Lingopie application.

Try Lingopie for effective language learning.